Real Democrat
Jimmy Carter, the only real Democrat elected to the Presidency since LBJ, has broken with the Southern Baptist Convention and explains his action at Comment Is Free: The words of God do not justify cruelty to women.
A moderate liberal, and, in the eyes of Walter Cronkite the most intelligent President he ever reported on, Carter said what he thought, held to his ideals, and did what he thought was right. Since Carter, almost every politician who calls themselves a Democrat lacks any loyalty to any concept except being elected.
Groucho Marx summed up the current crop of “Democrats” is his quote: “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.”
2 comments
Carter is pretty unjustly maligned in my opinion. The country was in a horrible state when he got it — Gerald Ford’s only plan for dealing with inflation was “Whip Inflation Now” buttons, for cryin’ out loud! He got unfairly blamed for the stagflation created by the policies of Nixon and Ford, especially Nixon’s failed wage and price controls that just shifted inflation into a burst in the future. Even on national defense most of the problems he inherited were caused by Nixon policies… by the end of 1973, the U.S. Army had basically disintegrated as a credible fighting force, and the U.S. Navy was still sailing WW2-era ships that would have sunk within hours if the pumps pumping the water out of their leaky rusting hulls had shut off. Carter significantly reduced the deficit, started the process of rebuilding the military into a credible fighting force again, purchased weapons systems like the F-16 over the objection of the Air Force that have proven to be reliable workhorses for thirty years now, and otherwise behaved as a sensible reliable President.
Unfortunately, Carter had a bad penchant for doing the right thing even when it’s the unpleasant thing, such as appointing Volker to deal with inflation. And his fatal flaw was telling the truth. The American people don’t want the truth. They want lies, bright shiny lies, lies that tell them they can have something for nothing, lies that tell them they’re a good people, a fair people, a charitable people instead of being the most vicious mean-spirited bastards on planet Earth, and Ronald Reagan was willing to tell them the lies they wanted to hear. So it goes. We get the government we want — and deserve. Alas.
– Badtux the Reminiscing Penguin
If we had stayed with his energy program we would have the foreign oil or greenhouse gas problems that we now face, and the solar and wind industries would be a good deal further along.
He got Camp David, and might have been able to strong arm an Israeli-Palestinian solution.
He was solving problems in the way that he saw as the most effective, but he didn’t know how to sugar-coat anything.
He was a farmer and small businessman who understood about making money and using it wisely, because you have no guarantees.
People look at the things he has been involved with since leaving office, and can’t figure out that he hasn’t changed a bit. He was pursuing the same things in office, but people were looking for a magic solution, and Reagan promised them one.